


The Good, The Bad and The Robins

by assren



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Brotherly Bonding, Gen, more Tim/Red Robin and Damian/Robin focused than anything else, shhhhhh, through trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 13:55:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5746306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/assren/pseuds/assren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drake and Wayne bond after a mission together, trauma ends up being somewhat helpful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Good, The Bad and The Robins

Tim and Dick were sitting on Tim's bed, catching up after not seeing each other for a while. Eventually, the topic of Bruce's child came up.

'I hate him,' Tim said, bitterly.

'No, you don't. He's Bruce's kid, you two will warm up to each other,' Dick answered.

'He punched me in the face, Dick.' Tim pointed at his nose. 'Right in the face, no prior talk, just a punch. In. My. Face.'

'Tim, he cut me with a sword, kid is stronger than he looks. Plus, he has been here for a while, you can't still be bitter about the first time you met.'

'I can be bitter 'till the day I die, Dick. Don't challenge me, and he hasn't apologised yet.'

Dick laughed, 'it's Damian, do you think he will apologise?'

Tim glared at him, 'aren't you supposed to be the positive one?'

'Damian is basically a mini-Bruce, I know how Bruce works. He will apologise eventually. I'm just messing with you.'

* * *

Damian and Jason were talking in the Batcave, both were wearing casual clothing instead of their uniforms, they felt more comfortable there. Damian was looking at the Batmobile, Jason was playing with his helmet. And they were talking about the Robins.

'I hate him,' Damian remarked.

'Hah, don't be like that, Kid,' Jason smiled.

'Why not? He hates me, he doesn't respect me. I expected you to understand me.'

Jason turned to face Damian, 'Tim isn't a bad person, I had my problems with him after I came back. But he really helped Bruce after my death, also, you punched him in the face when you two first met.'

Damian blushed, embarrassed, 'How do you even know that?'

Jason shrugged, 'he told me, he wasn't very happy about it, nor about you cutting Dick. Those two have a bond thing going on. You should apologise, Grayson already forgave you, he is a softie, but Tim can hold a grudge.'

'He can hold ten grudges for all, I care.'

Jason laughed, 'I like you, Kid. But you can't be like that, you're Bruce's kid and you are the Robin now. You're part of this family whether you like it or not, and we must trust each other. A lot of shit goes down in this city and we must have each other's backs. And Dad's.'

'I thought Grayson was the softie,' he smirked.

Jason shrugged again, 'I can do the responsible mentor bs once in a while.' He lit up a cigarette, 'Plus, I took pictures of you when you blushed, so this conversation won't get out of here, hear me?'

'Well,' Damian smirked. 'I recorded you calling Bruce Wayne “dad” so you better not try anything.'

'That never happened but in an unrelated note, you're a little shit.'

* * *

Later, Dick and Jason left to go to their respective houses. Batman was busy with the League so Tim and Damian were alone in the Manor.

Damian stayed in the cave after Jason left and Tim stayed in his room. The Batsignal went up after a while and both knew what to do, they didn't trust each other so they left alone.

* * *

Robin got to the GCPD roof, no one was there.

'Commissioner?' he called.

He heard steps coming up the stairs to the roof, Robin prepared himself for a fight.

Commissioner Gordon opened the door, he seemed surprised with Robin's presence. 'Robin? Why are you here?'

He pointed to the sky, 'the Batsignal is on? You literally called?'

'Red Robin was here earlier, he said Batman was out of town, he went to deal with it on his own. I thought you were out too.'

_'That fucking idiot is going to get himself killed,'_ he thought. 'What is happening and where?'

'Joker has some explosives over at one of the abandoned warehouses on the docks, I got men on the area but he has hostages, we can't approach it. I was communicating with my on-ground team before you got here.'

'Do we know what kind o-'

Gordon cut Robin off, 'Red Robin asked the same question, we don't, my men spotted some Joker gas in the area and from they saw we are guessing Venom too. Whatever is happening, it's big.'

_'Shit.'_ Robin went to the ledge. 'Did you men see any submarines? Boats? Do we know if he's importing or exporting?'

'No, we can't get close enough to it, and the places we could use to see behind the warehouse have been blocked off. He is trying to ride whatever he's doing.'

'Ok.' Robin prepared to jump.

'Robin?'

'Yes, Commissioner?'

'I'm sure you know this but, Joker isn't like the others, he's a psychopath. Are you sure that you and Red Robin can take him? Wouldn't it be better to call Batman?'

'I appreciate the feeling, Commissioner. But I can take Joker alone.' Robin jumped off the GCPD building.

Gordon lit up a cigarette and put it in his mouth, he inhaled and exhaled smoke as he took the cigarette off his mouth. 'My daughter would never do this.'

* * *

Red Robin was above one of the building in the Industrial district, glaring at the abandoned warehouse that Joker was using.

Cops and cop cars were close to the building but they couldn't get closer, Joker had goons all around the unit and some had hostages.

Joker also blocked off access to other warehouses, most likely so the cops wouldn't be able to see whatever he was doing behind it.

_'Eight hostages visible. Could have more inside the warehouse, or around the back. He could also have more on the other warehouses. The Batboat is too visible, so is the Batmobile. I could potentially use the Batwing if I flew really high and dropped inside the warehouse. But I must save the hostages first.'_ Red Robin thought to himself.  _'Two goons with hostages are on the roof, I need to take them out first or they'll spot me, but there's also a sniper. I need a distraction that won't put the hostages in danger.'_

Red Robin felt something on his back, he grabbed the arm of however it was and twisted it behind their back.

It was Damian. 'Let it go, Dickhead. If I were here to kill you, you'd be dead already.'

Tim let Damian's arm go, 'what are you doing here?'

'The same as you, Dumbass. Dad isn't here so I have to protect the city.'

'You're a kid, you can't protect yourself.'

'I'm a Robin and I was trained by the League of Assassins since I was born, Drake.'

'You're still a kid!'

'I'm Bruce's son and Ra's Al Ghul's grandson if I couldn't do this Bruce wouldn't have let me become Robin. Tell me the real reason you don't like me, Drake. Is it jealousy because I took you-'

Tim picked Damian up by the collar, Damian stared into Tim's eyes without moving his hands.

'I don't trust you because you're the grandson of a basically immortal supervillain. I don't trust you because your mother drugged Bruce before sleeping with him. I don't trust you because you can turn back on us at any time, we don't know if you have anything implanted on your brain. And I don't trust you because you're a reckless kid who can get yourself killed at any moment and Bruce would fucking blame himself.' Tim growled those words and dropped Damian.

Damian got up and pushed Tim against a wall, 'I didn't ask to be born, Drake. I didn't choose my parents, and you're right I don't know if there's something inside my brain that could turn me on you. But I do know that there are people in that fucking warehouse with guns pointed to their heads and that we have to do something about it or no one else will. So if you could stop expecting me to shove a knife on your back for fifteen fucking seconds we might be able to save them.'

Tim swallowed his anger, 'you're right, I'm sorry.'

'We just need to focus on this for now. You been here longer, what do you know?'

'Two guards on the front with one hostage each to keep the cops on check, more two on the roof with four hostages and a sniper watching over them. Plus two guards and one hostage in the right and left corners. And there are four guards patrolling the area, they walk from the front to the back in groups of two. We also have the other warehouses but access to them has been destroyed or blocked off so I don't know if there's anyone there or if this one is a distraction and the others are where the real deal is happening.'

'The Batboat would be visible...'

'Already thought of that, my plan had one flaw, but now that you're here it will work.'

'What is it?'

'We fall back and call the Batwing, we fly up and put it on autopilot to return to the cave. We jump off and you take care of the sniper while I take care of the ones watching over the hostages.'

'Then I go right and you go left, we save the hostages on the corners.'

'We must be careful with the patrol, but yes. Then we just take out the ones in the front and ask the cops to wait while we recon to area to be sure that there are no more hostages or mines planted.'

'We'll need cooperation to put this off, Drake.'

'I know, that's why we will put our differences aside like you suggested, that or we'll put those innocent lives in danger. So Truce?' Tim offered his hand to Damian.

'Truce.' He shook Tim's hand.

They went back a few block and called the Batwing.

* * *

The plan went perfectly. One patrol came around after the Robins defeated the goons at the front and released the hostages.

They saw two hostages running to the police and raised their guns, Red Robin threw shurikens at them and his bo staff up, Robin ran and jumped in their direction. The shurikens hit their hands and they dropped their guns, Robin grabbed the bo staff in mid-air and landed on one of the goons, he held the bo staff to the other's neck.

'We got some questions,' the Robins said in unison.

They heard steps on the opposite corner of the warehouse.

Red Robin held his hand up, Robin nodded and Red Robin went to the check the noise.

Robin knelt next to the goon, without removing the bo staff from his neck and whispered into his ear. 'If you dare to move, or make any noise that can alert any of your “buds”. I'll-'

The Goon interrupted him, but he also whispered, afraid of the boy in colorful costume. 'You'll what? Kill me? You don't do that, Kid. Batman would give you a scolding.'

Robin smirked, 'you're right, I don't kill. I do worse, I break your bones, I make you go to the hospital. Spend months recovering, then I do it again, maybe more bones this time. I don't kill, but if you even consider yelling, remember that I can make sure that you'll eat through a _straw_ for the rest of your life.

The Goon swallowed air and kept quiet.

* * *

Red Robin kept running to the corner, he heard the steps approaching faster. He saw the guns of the others patrol coming from the corner.

_'Shit,'_ Tim thought. _'I'll have to – Oh, Bruce would kill me if he saw this.'_

Red Robin jumped to the warehouse wall, the patrol stepped out of the corner and they saw Robin knelt over one of their allies. Red Robin bounced off the wall, the patrol raised their guns. Tim kicked number one in the face and fell crouched on the ground. He heard a 'WHAT THE FUCK?' coming from number two, Red Robin smirked and kicked number two down.

He got up and punched number one in the face, he fell unconscious. Number two tried to punch Red Robin but he grabbed his fist and twisted his arm around his back, pushing him against the warehouse wall, Red Robin used his left arm to choke number two until he also fell unconscious.

Red Robin walked back to Robin. 'I'm surprised our friend there,' he pointed to the Goon Robin was keeping still, 'didn't yell anything.'

Robin shrugged, 'we bonded while you were gone.'

'Riiiight, let's bring your friend to Detective Bullock, I'm sure he'll cooperate.'

'What? We can just talk to him now and get the answers we want, then stop that maniac clown.'

'We need to talk to Bullock, his men have to take the unconscious thugs out of here and we need to inform him our plan to scout before his men move in.'

'He already knows that we'll do that, he worked with Batman for years. He knows how this works.'

'We're not discussing this in front of the captured thug, alright? Let's just talk to Bullock, I won't hurt.'

'Urgh, fine.'

Red Robin helped getting the Goon on his feet and both walked him over to Bullock, who was waiting for them in front of the police force. Police officers came and took him into custody for interrogation.

'Took you a while, where's the big scary bat?' He asked, putting out his cigar.

'The person who saves this city of all its fuck ups is saving the world for all of its fuck ups right now, so you stuck with us,' Robin shot back.

Bullock raised an eyebrow. 'What he means, is that we're here to help while Batman is out of town, Detective,' Red Robin said, glaring at Robin. The child crossed his arms.

'I don't remember any of the other ones being this rude, not even the second one.' The Detective sighed. 'I already told some officers to get the unconscious criminals out of there, I assume you want me to stay put and interrogate your friend there while you two scout the area?'

Red Robin blushed, embarrassed. 'Wha – Yeah, how did you know.'

'I worked with Batman before he decided to have sidekicks wearing bright colors, Kid.'

Robin glared at Red Robin and shot his grappling hook to the roof of the warehouse.

Red Robin lowered his head and sighed, 'he didn't even wait to see what your men got out of the guy we bought.'

'Speaking of the devil,' Red Robin looked up and saw an officer giving Bullock a piece of paper. 'I don't know what that demon kid said to him but apparently the dude is terrified, he spit out everything. Joker is stealing Venom from Bane to mix it with his gas, looks like he's building a pretty big bomb out of that mess.'

'Which means we need to stop him, fast.'

'There's also one more hostage, a toddler from one of the other hostages, he said Joker plans to explode his head off if he sees anyone that isn't supposed to be there.'

'We're going to bring him back.' Red Robin shot his grappling hook to the roof of the warehouse.  _'FUCK, shit. I need to find Damian before someone sees him.'_

* * *

Joker was overlooking his thugs from the upper-level walkway, the toddler was sitting on his chair and the thugs were moving the Venom around, one of them tripped and almost dropped vials on the ground. 'Be more careful, you idiot! Mister “I-have-a-luchador-complex” probably didn't like us stealing it. He'd be even madder if he found out we broke most of it, you don't want that crazy man after you, or do you?'

'I'm – I'm sorry, Boss. I – I tripped on th-'

Joker interrupted him, yelling. 'TRIPPED? SO YOU'RE “HIGH” NOW? KIDS THESE DAYS I SWEAR.' He pointed at another thug, 'YOU, take those vials from the high one.'

The thug did as he was told to, and the “tripped” thug stood there. 'Boss, I'm not-'

'Shut up, do you look at you mother with those red eyes?'

'I'm no-'

Joker pulled a pistol out and shoot the goon in the head, 'I remember telling you to shut up.'

The toddler laughed, Joker turned around and smiled at him. 'Awwww, he's laughing at me killing people. You won't do drugs like that dirty not breathing person will you? No, you won't, you wouldn't dare disappoint me. I like you, shame I hate kids and I'll literally blow you up if it gets down to it but hey, we had good times right?'

He heard a thug calling him and turned to face him. 'Boss, we lost connection with the people outside.'

'He's here then,' Joker looked back at the kid. 'Speaking of the devil. Look on the bright side, Kiddo. If he manages to save you, which he won't, he might make you a dumb bird in bright colors. He seems to like putting kids in danger, honestly, that man is a threat to national security.'

'Boss, 'bout the Ba-'

'Yeah, yeah. Batsy is coming, I got it already,' Joker walked behind his chair. 'Heres the plan, my dear dumb dork.' Joker crouched and grabbed a puppy who was hiding below his chair, 'Batsy shows up and you _kill him_.' Joker gave the puppy to the kid and grabbed him by the head, he put the toddler on the metal walkway and sat on his chair. 'Now, let's build this bomb faster shall we? It would be a shame to disappoint the party crasher.'

* * *

Damian was inside the ventilation system, being the smallest of his brothers and knowing how big Gotham's vents are had its advantages.

He was doing his hardest to not make noise and focus on stopping Joker, but he couldn't stop thinking about Drake, and how he never listened. Why didn't he respect Damian? He had done everything, he stopped killing, he became Robin, saved his father countless times. What the Hell was necessary to win Drake's trust?

Damian didn't need it but he wanted it, it's like Jay – Todd, had said, they were a family, they should trust each other and yes, maybe he should apologise for punching Drake but Drake never apologised for putting him in that stupid “probable future supervillains list”.

Damian stopped when he heard beeping, _'crap.'_ He pulled his cape to protect himself and the mine exploded.

_'Shit.'_ Robin fell in front of Joker's chair, he could feel his leg burning. He wasn't fast enough to cover all of it before the mine exploded if it wasn't for his cape he would be dead.

'Nice of you to drop in,' Joker said getting up, he gave his signature maniac laugh, Damian hated that clown so much. Joker stepped on his throat, 'tell me, Birdie. Where's the Batsy?'

'Dealing with stuff bigger than you, sorry to disappoint but you aren't at the top of his list.'

Joker's smile died and he kicked Robin's face, 'I don't like rude brats.'

Robin spit blood on Joker's shoes, 'no, but you do have an obsession with bats, we should work on that.'

Joker sighed, and stepped on Robin's wounded leg, putting more pressure on it at every word, 'why are all his birds so rude? Batsy is a bad parent, I really should call Child Services on him.'

Robin grunted in pain, and Joker laughed again. ' _I need to figure a way out of this.'_

* * *

Red Robin dropped from the hole in the vents, Joker stopped laughing and sighed again. 'Oh, now the _red_ one is here, is the capeless crusader coming too? What about the one who stole my name and hood?'

Tim saw Joker stepping on Damian, _'crap.'_

'Boys, if you would be as nice to bet the little red Birdie into a pulp with the same colors as his clothes.'

All the goons in the warehouse went to attack Red Robin. _'Ah, crap.'_

He saw Robin twisting Joker's leg before starting to fight, Tim was worried. About the toddler and about the kidnapped baby.

He heard Joker yelling something, _'pay attention to the fight or you'll die, Tim.'_

He dodged a punch and used whoever threw it by launching him into two other thugs, he grabbed a leg heading for his head and twisted it, he heard the bone cracking.

Red Robin got hit in the back with a tire iron and fell, kneeling down. He heard Damian's voice in his head, it said _'pull yourself together, Drake.'_

_'Asshole,'_ Tim grabbed the tire iron off the goon's hands before it hit him again, he got up and headbutted the owner of the weapon.

He threw the weapon away, his back was still aching. He low kicked another goon and he fell on the ground.

Red Robin hit two heads together, he kicked and punched, dodged and counterattacked.

He was done after a while, everyone was down.

_'Finall-'_ His line of thought was interrupted by a knife entering his lower abdomen.

One of the thugs raised his arm just to stab him, Tim broke his arm and knocked him unconscious,

_'You'd think that after all these years we'd make these able to block a knife but nope,'_ he thought as he felt the stinging pain of removing the blade.

He looked around and didn't see Damian nor Joker. _'SHIT,'_ Red Robin shot his grappling hook to where Joker's chair was and he saw a door, he ran through it as he pressed his wound so the bleeding would stop, he needed to bandage himself quickly but Damian was more important.

* * *

Damian twisted Joker's leg after he got distracted with Red Robin, Joker stepped away and Robin got up.

'You rude prat,' Joker yelled, 'didn't Batsy tell you to respect your elders?'

'He taught me how to beat up crazy criminals.'

'I'll teach you some manners then, I'll do the same I did to the second one.'

Robin jumped forward, the moment his wounded leg hit the ground the pain returned. He lost balance and almost fell to the ground. Fortunately, Joker caught him, unfortunately, Joker threw his on his chair. The crazy clown picked the toddler, who was still holding the puppy up and ran through an exit next to his chair.

Robin got up again and limped after Joker, _'I can't help Tim in this state but I need to stop that clown.'_

He went down a couple of stairs and they were behind the warehouse, a submarine waited for Joker who was calmly walking towards it, still with the kid.

'STOP!' Robin yelled, Joker turned around and laughed.

Thugs came from all sides, Damian's leg still burned.

'Relax boys, the bird has a broken wing,' he pointed at Robin's leg. 'But hey, we can beat him up a little bit. Have fun.' He smiled and turned back to the submarine.

The thugs approached Robin, his leg was wounded and they knew it so he had to make it quick. He remembered he still had Tim's staff.

He waited for them to get closer, the goons were smiling from ear to ear. They thought they would finally get back at Batman, they were wrong.

They circled around Robin. The boy smiled and pulled Tim's bo staff, he hit all of them in the face, spinning. Only one of them got up again, Robin punched in the face and he fell down.

Robin shot a shuriken on Joker's face as he was about to enter the submarine. He lost balance and fell back, the baby flew from his hands.

_'Fuck,'_ Damian ran, ignoring his leg this time, he jumped and caught the baby mid-air.

He saw a shadow on the ground moving towards Joker. Red Robin caught Joker by the collar and lifted him.

'You're going back to Arkham you manic.'

'Don't think so, Birdie,' Joker opened his hands and some small white balls bounced on the ground, a big flash forced the Robins to close their eyes. Damian protected the baby's.

When they could see again, Joker was gone.

'It's ok, I put a tracker on him,' Tim showed Damian. 'We'll get him.'

Damian sighed, 'at least we got the bab-'

The baby exploded. Bits from him flew on Damian's face. The Robins were speechless.

Damian put his hand on his face and looked at his fingers, fresh blood.

_'No, no, no, no, no, no, no.'_

Red Robin just sadly looked at Damian.

Damian's eyes started to water, he laughed. 'We couldn't stop Joker, we couldn't even save an innocent baby. I failed Bruce. He started crying, 'I failed Bruce.'

Tim pulled Damian into a hug. 'We are going to stop him, and you didn't fail Bruce, he loves you. He's proud of you. But you need to focus because-'

'Because you two need to go home,' Batman had just landed beside them, 'Red Robin, give me the tracking device, I'll go stop him. You two need to rest.'

'Bu-'

'No buts, you two will go home and rest. Now.' He took Tim's device and called the Batwing to take them home and the Batboat to follow Joker.

* * *

They flew back home without a word, they changed back into casual clothes without a word. Damian went to his room and Tim followed.

Damian laid on his bed and Tim sat on it. 'What do you want, Drake?'

'To talk, without bickering or fighting.'

'Don't mention what happened, to anyone. Especially him. He doesn't need to know that his son is weak.'

'Damian, you got pieces of a baby on your face, you're allowed to be upset. Also, you're human, no matter how much of a demon kid you are. We didn't fail Bruce, we saved a lot of innocent lives out there. And he is definitely proud of that. I'm sure he is worried about you, if he saw what happened.'

Tim got up, 'look, the point is we are your family ok, and that was something traumatising.'

'How are you not affected then?'

Tim chuckled with a melancholic look on his eyes, 'I had friends taken from me right in front of my eyes, more than once. People who were under my command just – becoming dust in front of me. I'm not Jason but, innocent people dying doesn't affect me as it used to.' Tim stepped out of Damian's room. 'Anyway, my experiences don't matter. Just get some rest.'

'Drake?'

'Yeah?'

'Sorry about punching you, when we first met. And thanks for the pep talk.'

'Don't worry about it, and get used to it, I'm sure Bruce and the others will come here too.'

'Don't you dare tell them about me crying, Drake.'

'I already called them,' Tim left.

Damian stood alone in his room, in absolute silence. He should be used to death by now, he killed people before, yet that baby made him feel useless, like a failure. But at the same time, he was happy, his “family” cared about him, the League would never do that for him. If he ever cried in a mission he would have been punished.

And Drake hated him, but he had just talked him into feeling better. Damian had no idea of what to feel.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is literally the longest one-shot I ever wrote, all my friend prompted was "two people who hate each other for whatever reason end up being friends". And this happened.
> 
> Unrelated note: Summaries suck almost as much as titles.


End file.
